Sheltered Hearts
by TipsyFics
Summary: Steve and Bucky visit a shelter. There's a dog. It's name is Taco. Shenanigans.


A/N: This was actually NOT written while under the influence of alcohol. Just the influence of my own insanity. Enjoy at your own risk.

The whole thing had been Stark's suggestion. Just a little community service to show the people that even if they were superheroes, they still cared. Steve would've done it either way; he loved interacting with anyone that needed some help. But this time it wasn't people, it was dogs.

When Steve had told Bucky that he was heading down to the shelter for the day, Bucky had just blinked at him before shrugging on his jacket and following Steve without a sound. Even the ride there had been silent. Of course Steve would constantly look over at Bucky when he thought he wouldn't catch him, trying to see what his mood was. Was he excited? Bored?

Of course arriving at the shelter workers were overjoyed to see Steve. To have Captain America playing with puppies? It was a dream come true. Steve kept glancing over at Bucky to see if he was getting anxious with the people surrounding them, but he just lurked in a corner, hat pulled down and metal arm shoved in his pants pocket.

Inevitably Steve got distracted. It always happened when he got a little excited with their community service projects. Bucky smirked as he watched yet another woman sidle up to Steve and flip her hair over her shoulder while simultaneously keeping her dog in check (which was currently sniffing Steve's junk). Bucky wasn't sure what was making him blush more, the dog or the woman but Bucky smirked to himself nonetheless and then felt something wet licking his hand.

Turning to look over next to him, he saw a mangy black face looking back at him. Bucky jerked his hand away wiping the slobber off on his jeans. Flicking his gaze back to Steve he saw him more forcefully trying to shove the dog away from his butt, probably wishing he had his shield to block the dogs nose.

Feeling a snuffling on his hand now, Bucky glared down at the black dog again. "Stop," he hissed at it, but the dog just gave him the sweetest puppy dog eyes back that he had ever seen. Even beating out Steve, which was really saying something.

"Shoo," Bucky said, waving his hand away, but the dog just seemed to latch it's own gaze onto his hand, thinking it was some kind of toy. Bucky settled his hand back on his knee, the dog gazing at him intently.

"I'm not adopting you," Bucky said firmly, giving the dog his most fearsome assassin look. If anything the dog just gave him more of a pout. "Please?" it seemed to say, "I'll be good!"

"Steve would say no and Stark would have me dead before having a dog in the tower," Bucky said, now trying to reason with the dog. "You wouldn't like it. There's too many people." He was grasping for any excuse now.

Ignoring Bucky's comments, the dog shuffled over, not even standing up until its head was in his lap, still looking up at him with those pitiful eyes. Then the dog looked at him and sighed. SIGHED. And Bucky couldn't take it anymore. He caved.

Reaching out his flesh hand again, he scratched the dog gently behind the ears and the dog closed its eyes, grumbling softly with appreciation. A slow smile was beginning to spread over Bucky's face until he heard a voice in front of him.

"You found Taco…or Taco found you," a brunette woman said as she crouched down next to Bucky and rubbed Taco's belly.

Bucky jerked his hand away, feeling his entire body stiffen with tension, this woman getting too close to him.

"He just walked over to me," Bucky said defensively, pulling his hat more securely over his face.

"Well Taco's been through a lot," the woman said, smiling sadly at Taco, barely giving Bucky any attention. He watched as she gently moved her hand over a scar on his side that Bucky hadn't noticed before.

"What happened?" he asked, surprised that he even seemed to care.

"Taco here was in a bad little accident. Huh Taco?" she smiled kindly at the dog again. "We found little Taco on the side of a road, looked like he had been thrown from a car."

Bucky felt his heart start to pound, looking back at Taco with a new appreciation. Taco gazed back up at him, a shared look of a horrible past crackling the air between them. The woman was still talking about Taco, probably mentioning something about how long he had been at the shelter but Bucky had stopped listening, finding his hand behind his ears again, before finally blurting out, "I'll take him."

The woman abruptly stopped talking and stared at him in shock. Shifting uncomfortably, Bucky said gruffly, "I can do that right? Take him home?"

"Uh, yes. Yeah, absolutely," she stuttered out and stood up mumbling something about paperwork, almost running into Steve.

"We're getting a dog?" Steve asked, smiling that millionaire dollar smile at Bucky that he loved so much.

"Is that okay?" he asked defensively, feeling Taco climb further into his lap, licking his metal arm, pleased when the dog didn't recoil in disgust.

Steve knelt down and flitted his gaze between Bucky and Taco. "That's great," he answered softly, eyes crinkling with a smile and the love so apparent on his face that he might as well have a damn blinking sign above his head telling the world how he felt.

"I love you," Steve whispered and Bucky ducked his head, still not used to being so…public with Steve. Used to Bucky's silence, Steve just smirked and reached out a hand to either pet Taco or grip Bucky's hand, but either way, Taco turned to him and growled ferociously at Steve.

Eyes wide, Steve removed his hand immediately and watched stunned, as Bucky ducked his head and whispered something to the dog before grabbing Steve's hand and placing it on Taco.

The shelter woman was about to walk back around the corner, but stopped, watching as Taco laid between the two of them, gently holding hands, Steve watching Bucky as Bucky watched Taco. Backing away quietly, she shooed away her staff members, letting them have their moment.


End file.
